Following complaints of landfilling, coastal zone watchdog to inspect Railways’ construction works at Velsao today

MARGAO: Following a complaint filed by Goencho Ekvott, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) will be conducting an inspection of the works being carried out by the Railway authorities in the Mollo area of Velsao-Pale-Issorcim village. This inspection will be held on Wednesday, April 12 from 11 am onwards.

This assumes significance as there have been many appeals in the past by the locals to the GCZMA to look into their concerns of irreparable damage being done to the environment.  

In the past, the locals had questioned why the Railways do not have to seek any CRZ related clearances for their work in the village, given that locals are asked to run from pillar to post to get permission for any minor work.

More importantly, this is the same area where locals had objected to double-tracking work being carried out by Railways, following which Railway Police filed offences against four persons and ten other unnamed persons from the village.

“The GCZMA is in receipt of the complaint dated March 24, from Goencho Ekvott (GE), with regard to the (alleged) illegal work being carried out by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL)at Dando Mollo Velsao in CRZ area, thereby (causing) blockage of the creek,” read the notice issued by Dr Sneha Gitte, GCZMA’s Member Secretary.

“Goencho Ekvott on behalf of the affected villagers of Velsao, Pale and surrounding villages welcomes the experts from GCZMA to their scheduled site inspection of the creek at Mollo, Pale village on April 12,” said Orville Dourado Rodrigues, GE Founder member.

“This creek has been devastated by the dumping of mud and construction debris by RVNL, thus laying waste to the fragile ecosystem of the brackish waters which has also severely affected the livelihood of a number of local fishermen. It has also inundated the low-lying paddy fields with saline water from the Arabian Sea, thus rendering them fallow for the next 3-4 seasons. Common sense, if applied, will help stop all such planned destruction of our tiny villages by RVNL through their illegal land grabbing activities,” Rodrigues added.

Both GE and RVNL have been asked to be present in person for the inspection and given that the present police case stems from the locals of Velsao protesting against RVNL, all focus will be on what GCZMA has to say.

In the past, there have been other inspections in Velsao by other agencies like the Forest Department but there was no action taken thereafter.